In sales of consumer merchandise in retail locations, such as grocery stores, the merchandise is typically displayed on shelving units for removal by customers during shopping. Certain items arrive via delivery on load carrying units, such as, for example, shipping pallets, and are manually removed from the load carrying units and placed on the shelving units. Such load carrying units 30, implemented, for example, in FIGS. 1A-1D as various shipping pallets and dollies, provide a generally flat transport structure which can support a stacked configuration of merchandise 40, as illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B, in a stable manner during transporting and unloading. To conserve shelf space, the load carrying units may be placed in a retail display area on the sales floor, so that the merchandise is displayed on the load carrying unit for removal by customers during shopping. However, tracking the stock situation of the merchandise displayed on load carrying units requires manual inspection by employees of the retail store, reducing the efficiency of merchandise.